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OPINION

As a society, we should do more to help students achieve

Reader submissions
Published 8:00 a.m. PT Sept. 3, 2018

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SunLine is offering College of the Desert students free rides under a new program. Other companies and parts of society should follow this example to help students reach their full potential, a Desert Sun reader writes.(Photo11: The Desert Sun file photo)Buy Photo

For several years SunLine Transit Agency has offered wonderful SunDial mini-buses, which are lifesavers for disabled people. SunLine deserves thanks for a new program to give bus passes for College of the Desert students.

However, since there is no major research library in the valley, and students need to use the library at UC Riverside, I feel the Riverside Commuter Link bus should be included. SunLine should also offer passes for residents attending the valley’s University of California, Riverside, and California State University San Bernardino-Palm Desert Campus facilities.

We need highly trained young people to be the doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and scientists that will keep society flourishing. They will be the ones paying taxes to support Social Security and medical expenses of our growing elder population.

Other nations provide free tuition and salaries to students who pursue training in needed professions. Here, many students remain burdened with large loan debts. Giving bus passes to students is a step in the right direction.

Everything possible should be done to encourage talented young people who want to accomplish something positive in their lives. The more highly skilled young people we develop, the better the future will be for everyone.

President Trump announced he will cancel a 2.1 percent wage increase for nearly 2 million federal employees. His rationale? “We must maintain efforts to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases.”

Of course, fiscal responsibility went unmentioned when Trump signed an economically unnecessary tax cut heavily skewed to businesses and wealthy individuals.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit to grow by $912 billion this fiscal year – 39 percent higher than last year. Due to a runaway deficit created by Trump and the Republican Congress, federal workers will be denied a small raise.

Further, little of the substantial business tax savings have gone to workers. Instead, companies are buying their own stock with buybacks up 80 percent over last year (Goldman Sachs). But only half of Americans participate in the stock market, and 80 percent of stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10 percent.